Snowmobiles having steerable front skis utilize struts which include a movable tube for support of the forward end of the chassis. The movable tube is slidably supported in a stationary tube, the stationary tube being rigidly attached to the chassis. A steering ski is attached to the lower end of the movable tube. A spring is provided to bias the movable tube downwardly, and the spring requires a seat to support its biasing action. The seat, of course, must be fixed to the chassis.
It is conventional for the spring seat to be formed in an upper portion of the movable tube to provide the said bias, but then there arises the problem that the construction of the conventional chassis of the snowmobile must be drastically changed. For an example of such changes, reference may be had to U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,485. The size of the chassis itself must frequently be enlarged to provide an upper spring seat, because there is no reinforcement inherently provided in the upper portion of the chassis. Moreover, if the cushioning stroke of the steering ski is considerably elongated, the location of the upper spring seat must still further be raised, thereby still further to enlarge the size of the chassis.
It is an object of this invention to provide a strut-type steering ski suspension which does not require any substantial change in the chassis construction of the snowmobile itself.
Yet another object of the invention is to compensate for misalignment between the stationary tube and the receiver of a piston rod in such a strut assembly.